Supplement Review: Balancing Estrogen

PMS, bloating, cramping, water retention, mood swings, painful breasts, endometriosis, PCOS, perimenopause, menopause, hot flashes, weight gain, breast cancer, uterine cancer, fibroids, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer – the joys of being the owner of a female reproductive system. Fortunately, there is a natural supplement available claiming to address a lot of these issues.

Today we are going to talk about a specific phytonutrient, diindolylmethane, or DIM for purposes of saving my typing fingers.

Phytonutrition is basically the dietary use of micronutrients which naturally occur in plants. DIM is a phytochemical found in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale and cabbage.

Now that we’ve got all the big words out of the way, let’s talk about what DIM does. It has been shown to increase the regulation of hormone metabolism (i.e., balancing good and bad estrogens) and could be instrumental in preventing breast and prostate cancer. So, clearly, beneficial to both women AND men.

There is a lot of science behind all of this and I don’t want this to be a long post. I also want to remind anyone that may have forgotten that I am not a doctor so I will just share my personal experience with this supplement and encourage you to research it further if it is something you feel might be of benefit to you.

I came across this supplement, Nature’s Way DIM-Plus Estrogen Metabolism Formula when I was looking for something, ANYTHING, to alleviate hot flashes. Hot flashes sound like something that can’t possibly be all that bad but, trust me, until you experience them for yourself, you will have no idea of how awful they truly are. Unless you enjoy the feeling of burning up from the inside.

Four or five times a day, minimum, I would get hit with these monsters – turning red and dripping sweat off my face, the back of my neck and my chest. Looked like I had just worked out Really Hard. Even worse, the neck sweating was always making the underside of my flat-ironed hair curl up. Ruined my look. And they always seemed to happen when I was talking to someone. Usually someone too young to understand the Law of Diminishing Hormones. Embarrassing. And exhausting, actually.

Anyway, back to my story. So I found this supplement on iHerb and, since it had really good reviews, I decided to try it. The suggested dose is 2 pills per day for women, or 4 for men, taken with food. Oh, and the good news? Small pills, easily swallowed. Doubling the dose is suggested if you are hard core.

The very first day I took them, I had only two hot flashes. And those two were more of just a general warming up and I didn’t break a sweat. By the fourth day, I didn’t have any. And I really think it did something to even out my mood and pull me out of that self-pitying funk I was in. I just don’t think it is just coincidence that my mood elevated within two days of taking this supplement. Of course, I may just feel better because I’m not constantly sweating…

This is the first supplement I’ve ever taken where I can say I actually felt a difference from taking them. These little happy pills will never be far from my room-temperature side.

Apparently there is a lot of undiagnosed estrogen dominance out there. We are subjected to a lot of estrogens from outside sources (xenoestrogens) that are absorbed into our bodies and we may not even be aware of. Yet, I have never had a doctor check my hormone levels. Ever. You would think it would be one of the standards in blood testing, but it’s not. Especially since elevated estrogen levels are what lead to breast cancer, fibroids, endometriosis and bunches of other things that I already forgot. Interestingly, I had a hysterectomy due to fibroids but, still, my hormone levels were never checked.

Okay, so what are the symptoms of estrogen dominance in women? It’s a long list – and you’ll see that a lot of them are the very same symptoms almost guaranteed to get you put on anti-depressants:

• Allergy symptoms

• Breast cancer

• Breast tenderness

• Cold hands and feet

• Decreased sex drive

• Mood swings

• Dry eyes

• Depression, anxiety, irritability

• Fatigue

• Fibrocystic breasts

• Increase risk of strokes

• Irregular menstrual periods

• Headaches

• Hypoglycemia

• Insomnia

• Slow metabolism

• Infertility

• PMS

• Zinc deficiency

• Osteoporosis

• Uterine fibroids

• Uterine cancer

• Water retention, bloating

• Weight gain

• Hair loss

• Acceleration of the aging process

• Fat gain around hips and thighs

• Polycystic ovaries

• Endometrial cancer

• Memory loss, foggy thinking

• Thyroid dysfunction

• Magnesium deficiency

• Gallbladder disease

• Unstable blood sugar

• Cervical dysplasia

• Prostate cancer

• Ovarian cancer

Gosh, what a fun list! If you are bothered by any of these symptoms, I encourage you to look into DIM. There is a lot of fascinating stuff out there about DIM and its effects on autoimmune disorders. Oh, and read the reviews for it over at iHerb – they always tell me a lot that the supplement manufacturer isn’t legally allowed to say.

Happy hormones, everyone!